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tween my Lady and his chair, ‘whether your ladyship ever
happened to hear of, or to see, a young lady of the name of
Miss Esther Summerson.’
My Lady’s eyes look at him full. ‘I saw a young lady of
that name not long ago. This past autumn.’
‘Now, did it strike your ladyship that she was like any-
body?’ asks Mr. Guppy, crossing his arms, holding his head
on one side, and scratching the corner of his mouth with his
memoranda.
My Lady removes her eyes from him no more.
‘No.’
‘Not like your ladyship’s family?’
‘No.’
‘I think your ladyship,’ says Mr. Guppy, ‘can hardly re-
member Miss Summerson’s face?’
‘I remember the young lady very well. What has this to
do with me?’
‘Your ladyship, I do assure you that having Miss Sum-
merson’s image imprinted on my ‘eart—which I mention
in confidence—I found, when I had the honour of going
over your ladyship’s mansion of Chesney Wold while on a
short out in the county of Lincolnshire with a friend, such
a resemblance between Miss Esther Summerson and your
ladyship’s own portrait that it completely knocked me over,
so much so that I didn’t at the moment even know what it
WAS that knocked me over. And now I have the honour of
beholding your ladyship near (I have often, since that, tak-
en the liberty of looking at your ladyship in your carriage
in the park, when I dare say you was not aware of me, but I
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